WHAT’S IN THE NAME? The first recorded entry into Manyuland by a European was in July 1888, when Count Eugen von Zintgraff with his Monrovian followers traveled northwards from the station he had opened at Lake Barombi in Kumba to carry out reconnaissance for future expeditions. It must be remembered that, before the West made forays into Manyuland, the people had indigenous systems in place, many of which were well adjusted to the way of life at the time. The origin of the name “Mamfe” has as many versions as there are languages in Manyu Division. Popular legend has it that, when the Germans led by the station controller of the government station at Rio del Rey, Lieutenant V. Queis arrived here via the Grossfluss (Great River), they met some indigents building a house. It must be noted that, the building of traditional houses is still a communal endeavor.

Depending on the owner’s claim to status, a different type of house was built with a large living room called Acha Eket or Etambu, a “meeting house.” This type of house had a larger main room, with fewer or no couch-beds in it, and was expected properly to contain an Ekwap “pole-support” in the room’s center: this is a stout pole which runs from the floor to the roof-tree and at the base of which earth is packed into a conical shape with a flattened top; at a small hole scooped out in front of this construction (the “bottom of the pole-support”, nerekwap) ritual offerings are made to the dead. The erection of an ekwap was a mark therefore of its owner’s wider leadership.

Apparently, when the Germans arrived just when builders were about to lower the ekwap into the hole, they asked in German for the name of the town. As the builders could not understand the German language, one of them asked his fellow builders whether they should lower the ekwap into the hole by saying “Mamfieh?” (should we put it in?) in Kenyang language. The Europeans misunderstood his gesture to mean an answer to their question, thus the origin of the name “Mamfe”.

DIVISIONAL HEADQUARTERS: In the final decade of nineteenth century, German traders began to ply in Manyuland and a series of military expeditions passed through it, but it was not until 1901-1902 that the first civil administrative headquarters were established, situated then at Ossidinge (Agbokim) close to the Cross River in eastern Ejagham country. In 1902 Count Puckler-Limburg became the first Civil Administrator, assuming responsibility for Ossidinge District corresponding broadly to what was later to become Manyu Division. After Puckler was killed by Bascho tribesmen in 1904 when traveling in Anyang country, Dr. Alfred Mansfeld, the second Civil Administrator changed the administrative headquarters to their present site in Mamfe in 1909. Mansfeld remained in charge of the district until the defeat of the Germans in the Cameroons Campaign (1914-1916) when the administration of the district passed into British hands. By 1922, Ossidinge became Mamfe Division, and J.W.C. Rutherford came back to Mamfe as Divisional Officer with Sherwood Smith as Acting Divisional Officer.

PLEBISCITE QUESTION: The city of Mamfe was at the front and center of the body politic of Anglophone Cameroon. Mamfe played host to a conference presided over by Sir Sydney Phillipson in early August 1959. Granddad in his capacity of High Commissioner for the Cameroons appointed Sir Sydney Phillipson KBE, CMG, to report upon the financial, economic and administrative consequences to the Southern Cameroons of separation from the Federation of Nigeria. Representatives of the Kameroun National Congress (KNC), and the Kameroun National Democratic Party (KNDP) both attended, and it was hoped that the meeting would agree on the questions to be put at the forthcoming plebiscite on the future of Southern Cameroons.

As a consequence of the Mamfe conference, at the United Nation’s General Assembly’s eighty-two Nation Trusteeship Council in September – October 1959, Foncha (KNDP) and Endeley (KNC) agreed that one of the alternative questions for the plebiscite should be association with Nigeria. Foncha wanted a second alternative to be “separation from Nigeria and continued trusteeship until the Southern Cameroons was in a position to decide its future.” Endeley, on the other hand, wanted the second alternative to be “reunification with “our brothers and sisters” of French Cameroons after the territory becomes independent on 1st January 1960.”

As neither party would move from these positions, the African delegation at the UN was asked to find common ground between the KNC and KNDP. Liberia finally submitted a draft resolution to the Trusteeship Council, which proposed that a plebiscite should be held not later than March 1961 and that the questions should be:

1). Do you wish to achieve independence by joining an

2). Do you wish to achieve independence by joining the independent Republic of Cameroon?

NEHNU MPAW MANKU: Manyulanders traded numerous political and military salvoes with the German colonial administration due to the latter’s lack of knowledge of the cultural cathedrals, norms, forced labor, heavy handedness, and brute force on the indigenous population. First and foremost for Manyulanders, their subjection to a strong and ruthless central authority whose political power had simply to be accepted ran amok a peoples’ psychological make-up that hitherto, loathed central authority. Consequently, in 1904, Puckler-Limburg was killed when traveling in Anyang country on the “overside” of the Manyu River. His assassination sparked off a rebellion in which Anyang, Boki, Eastern Ejagham, and Lower Banyang villages took part. A number of trading stores were looted, and five traders on the Cross River were killed.

Besongabang, Egbekaw and Mamfe looted the German factory, Gesellschaft-Nord Kamerun at Mamfe. The German agent, Schmidt, attempted to protect his factory, but was forced to leave. He went to his house only to find that his staff had decamped with his firearms. Meanwhile the looters had found rum and gin, and maddened by the unaccustomed drink, cut the unfortunate German to pieces with machetes as he was trying to escape by canoe. The subsequent orgy is still remembered. Some are supposed to have died through mistaking kerosene for gin, and others drank themselves to death. Besongabang and Okoyong (Ayuk Etayak Clan) fled to the bush, whence they only dared to emerge after some years. Mamfe alone offered resistance, and were practically decimated, which accounts for their present size.

A German expedition from the south was dispatched to pacify the region. Martial law and forced labor were imposed as punishment. The fleeing villages and communities failed to harvest their cocoyams and other crops; as a result most of it got rotten on their farms. Consequently, this sordid epoch was christened “Nehnu Mpaw Manku” (war of rotten cocoyams). This rebellion vividly illustrates once again the extent to which Manyulanders are not yet reconciled to the idea of a central authority.

CLIMATE: As Mamfe is in a peninsula, humidity can be over 90% and temperatures can exceed 120F during the dry season (February – April). During the rest of the year, temperatures remain in the 80-90s and fall only during the rainy season, sometimes to 60F. The climate is very welcoming especially for western tourists escaping the ravages of winter. Tourist icons include the two German Suspension Bridges built in 1906, the Manyu River, German Architecture and Graves, Lake Ejagham, Mbio Hill, Agbokim Waterfalls, traditional art and crafts, the Mamfe Cathedral, cultural festivals, and ceremonies etc.